New Year, Old Laptop Repair

I have a pretty old laptop, a Dell Precision m3800. During the holidays, it fell off a table and landed precisely on the power connector (don’t ask). The power connector was bent, the light indicator on it would not light up and the laptop wouldn’t charge. Fortunately such power supplies are used by other more recent models, so I was able to order one online.

BUT, what if i could repair it? I decided to give it a try. Usually fixing a power connector is a simple soldering job plus some cutting away of material with an exacto knife. I’ve done it before on other devices. Unfortunately in this case the barrel completely came apart from the casing and the wires were too short to solder back together. A quick search online showed that you can purchase the barrel connector with an extra bit of wire attached to it, which makes this kind easy peasy. I ordered the part and it arrived a few days later.

Here’s the part I ordered. It came in a two pack, so I have a spare now:

and here’s the part I removed from the power supply:

and here is a picture of the work in progress:

and finally, here’s the repaired power supply:

I was able to solder the wires back together and the laptop is now charging again. I’m happy to have been able to fix this particulare power supply and to not have to throw it in the trash.

I hope to get a few more years out of this laptop. It’s still a pretty good machine, even if it is a bit old.